This invention relates to hog carcass splitting.
Hog carcass butchering techniques used for many years involve, after the steps of decapitation, removal of feet, full length slitting along the belly and evisceration, the step of cutting the carcass through the backbone into two halves. From each separate half, or so-called "hog side", the rib cage and loins are pulled, any other cuts of meat taken, and the skin removed from the bacon and fat on the skinning machine. The two pieces of skin can be used for fabrication of footwear or other articles. Actually, it is far preferable to have one large piece of skin from the hog carcass rather than two small ones. Therefore, in recent years, the butchering technique has been modified so that, instead of splitting the carcass into two distinct halves, a highly skilled workman carefully cuts the backbone in two with a power saw, from the inside of the carcass, without cutting through the adjacent skin over the exterior of the backbone. This obviously is a tricky operation involving unusual dexterity and care, and requiring highly skilled personnel. It also involves considerable potential danger to the workman who holds and manipulates the power saw from an elevated hand held position, vertically downward to a low position on the hanging carcass. Even with the greatest of skill and care, however, the skin is too often sliced because of its close proximity to the backbone.
Once this operation is complete, the removal of the rib cage and loins then involves removal of the two parts of the severed backbone therewith. The bacon and fat back remaining on the skin are subsequently separated from the double side skin as on a drum type double side skinner as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,310,085.
Although the assignee herein, a fabricator of articles from the tanned hog skins, much prefers the double side skins to optimize product quality and maximize area of skin usage, packing plants are reluctant to take the added time and care, and to pay skilled personnel to perform the special processing step. Moreover, the manual operation requires adequate time to perform this delicate task, thereby potentially holding up the entire processing line. Packing plants are highly competitive so that any decrease in productivity or any added costs are crucial.
In view of these factors, inventors at the assignee herein developed the special hog splitting apparatus set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,550. The patented hog splitter employs a tilted upright guide, a vertically traveling stop behind the carcass back, a vertically traveling cutter cooperative therewith, and coordinate drive mechanism for the stop and the cutter. Such apparatus did in fact improve the employee's safety considerably, as well as control the depth of accuracy of hog splitting in contrast to the manual function. However, many packing plant operators were still reluctant to install the machine because, although it had definite advantages, the time required to split the hogs was not sufficiently improved over the manual technique to justify the expenditure.